just a head's up to all of you. any moment now the white house will be holding its coronavirus tax force briefing, but today's update will likely take a different tone, and that's because of the number on the right side of your screen there. the u.s. is expected to surpass 500,000 deaths today, a reflection point for the half a million families who will never be the same. also this hour, we are keeping an eye on that confirmation hearing of merrick garland, president biden's choice for attorney general. the hearing became emotional at times with the discussion in the disparity in how the law section cuted in the country. judge garland is vowing to keep politics out of the department of justice, and he also promised to fully prosecute the, quote, heinous crimes committed on capitol hill on january 6th. also today a huge loss for the former president. the u.s. supreme court has just cleared the way for a new york prosecutor to get his hands on donald trump's tax returns, so

we'll discuss that at length as far as what this means for the investigation into those alleged hush money payment, but, first, let's start at the white house with my colleague there phil mattingly, and, phil, just speaking of this awful, awful number here. i know that president biden, vice president harris will be making a point to honor those half million lives lost this evening. what are you hearing? >> yeah, look, it's a somber moment at the white house and a somber moment for the entire country, a staggering number that i don't think most people can get their heads around and that's a driving force for why president biden and vice president harris will do. they will have a candle-lighting ceremony and thereby a moment of silence and the president will give remarks and he's ordered flags to be taken down to half staff for the next five days in federal buildings and a remembrance of sorts. think back one month ago the day before president biden's inauguration standing in front

of reflection pool he had a remembrance at that time for 400,000 lives and he said to heal we must remember and while you're focused on the task force meetings and the vaccines and vaccine production and vaccinateors and all the different elements that everyone is focused on as you try to turn the corner and turn the page on what has been kind of a horrific last year not just for this country but for the entire world the president trying to keep the focus to some degree on those grieving family, on those who have lost someone over the course of the last 11 and a half, 12 month and a recognition that 500,000 lives seems kind of amorphous to some degree because it's so large. tonight they will be focusing on the families and love ones that lost someone to some degree with more acknowledgement and while they believe they are in the process of turning a corner, but at least for one moment they will focus on what has occurred and transpired over the course of the last year. >> hard to believe we've been in

this for a year and all of us know at least one person touched by covid and has passed. thanks for that. we're also honoring the lives this evening here on cnn. we'll get to that second. let's discuss moving forward dr. leana wen, chief health commissioner for the city of baltimore. nice to see you. although we're about to cross this grim milestone of 500,000 deaths, when you look at the daily cases, deaths, hospitalizations, they are all dropping dramatically is this because of the vaccine, pure and simple? >> i don't think that the trends that we're seeing are all due to the vaccine. maybe a portion of it, but i actually think is a lot of that is because we had a dramatic surge because of thanksgiving, christmas and so forth and we're coming down from that surge, and that's why although i'm optimistic, at least that the numbers are trending the right direction, i'm still extremely cautious about what this could

mean because we're still at a very high level of infection, and we've seen a pattern before that when restrictions are loosened, when pandemic fatigue sets if there's a chance whatever gains we've made could be reversed and this is particularly the case with variants on the way as well that could be more transmissible. i think the vaccine will make a big difference especial whether i it comes to death rates because we're vaccinating people that are older and that will make a difference but the gains we've seen so far can be mostly attributed to the vaccine. >> i hear your caution and i appreciate it. i was reading something today that even how after you're vaccinated, experts aren't entirely sure whether you can actually still carry the virus in your nose and then transfer it to those who have not been vaccinated, so how long, do winn after you've been vaccinated, how long do we need to be wearing masks? >> this is a really good

question and it points to the need for practical guidance about what happens when people are fully vaccinated because i don't think it's enough to tell people you should still follow exactly the same precautions you did pre-vaccine. that's not really true. people who are fully vaccinated, two weeks after they are fully vaccinated they should be able to do some things. if they put off essential activities like mammograms and colonoscopies and surgeries, they should definitely do that because they are well protect themselves but i don't think people should be going bar hopping and should keep wearing masks and physical distancing outdoors with strangers but grandparents really eager to see their grandkids and rest of the family they should be able to do including to spend time indoors with them, still be careful if they are traveling and reduce other social interactions, but i do think we do need to give people hope for what comes after they get vaccinated. >> quickly to follow up on that because everyone is thinking finally can see my grandparents, introduce the grand baby. how many weeks after the second

vaccination do you still have to hold before you can then see the grandparents? >> you get optimal immunity ten to 14 days after the second dose so wait at least until then. >> forgive me. i'm going dom that point in a second. hang tight. let's go to the white house covid briefing. just started. >> along with the vice president and second gentleman will hold a moment of silence in a ceremony at sundown to honor those who have lost their lives to this pandemic. everyone lost is someone whose life and gifts were cut short. our hearts go out to all of those who are grieving loved ones, who are so deeply missed. for most of us in the administration the occasion makes us more determined to turn the tide on covid-19 so the

losses can subside and the healing can begin. the president has asked us to use every possible resource to make that happen. on friday i provided an overview of how the extreme weather had impacted our vaccination efforts, and today i want to give an update on our progress to recover. that progress began as soon as the weather began to improve thanks to an all-out around-the-clock effort from our teams and partners. mckesson ran extended shifts saturday and sunday to pack vaccines, and members of the military joined them in their efforts. 70 mckesson employees volunteered to work is being a.m. shifts saturday night and sunday morning to prepare shipments to meet an 11:00 a.m. transit deadline. on sunday ups extended its onsite traylor time at the mckesson facility in kentucky to

allow them to pack hundreds of thousands of more doses. thanks to that and many more, those efforts today alone we plan to deliver 7 million doses. the this is a combination of catchup from last week's doses that were delayed from the weather and doses going out as a normal part of today's normal distribution. i reported on friday that we would catch up on deliveries by the end of this week. we now anticipate that all backlog doses will be delivered by mid-week, but delivering doses to administration sites is, as we know, only the first step. sites around the country have a significant job ahead of them to quickly vaccinate the public. it will take some time for those sites to catch up. we encourage vaccination sites

to follow that same lead of those who are working extended hours to catch up on deliveries by scheduling more appointments to vaccinate the anxious public as quickly as possible. there are still vaccination sites closed from the storm's impact. texas' seven-day average of administered covid-19 doses decreased by 31% in the past week due to winter weather impacts. some houston-area vaccination clinics and testing sites have now reopened. austin public health does not believe reopening is safe at this time, but they announced when operations resume they will include extended hours in additional locations. next i want to begin to turn to our efforts to educate and communicate with the public about the importance of vaccinations. after all, today's challenge of vaccinating those who are

waiting must be accompanied by an equally aggressive effort to reach people who are considering getting vaccinated but haven't yet decided to. we are so fortunate to have highly effective vaccines and safe vaccines which makes the conversation with the public a much more straightforward one, so let me tell you a little bit about the three stages of our approach to communication. for the last month we've been in the first stage of this work. that first stage has entailed a significant number of activities. listening to the public's concerns, hearing from experts, testing how different audiences react to different methods of communication and different messengers and ensuring that we can provide clear answers that the public deserves. today we begin a second and more public stage, engagement with

key stakeholders. the covid team has begun meeting on an ongoing basis with state and local health leaders, non-profits, businesses and unions about the pandemic. we've held more than 100 one orrin one discussions with these groups, and we'll continue then gagement throughout the response. new to continue to enforce our confidence, over the next two weeks the white house along with cdc and hhs will host a series of listening sessions with key stakeholder groups. these meetings will be led by dr. nunez smith who is leading our equity work. these conversations will focus on how to strengthen vaccine confidence and how to eliminate barriers that underserved communities are facing to vaccinations like paid leave, transportation and scheduling. the meetings are kick off today with a conversation with key leaders in the african-american community and throughout week

we'll be meeting with latino groups, faith leaders and members of the rural community. these listening sessions will continue our effort to hear directly from communities who have been hit hardest by this pandemic and help us build strong partnerships with those who will be key to our efforts to build vaccine confidence and reach everyone in our response. as a part of this effort beginning today through wednesday cdc is hosting a national forum on vaccines where they are bringing together thousand of participants from around the country, from practitioners to jurisdictions to others working on the ground to discuss practical strategies, technical resources and best practices for vaccination efforts. in a moment dr. walensky will discuss this. all of that continues our work on not only a whole government response but to leverage the best existing resources outside

of government to end this pandemic as quickly as possible. and our third phase, the public education campaign, will be time for maximum effectiveness and designed based on both our learnings and take full advantage of the participation of many throughout the country. so with that update i will turn it over to dr. walensky and then from there to dr. fauci, and then we'll take your questions. >> thank you, andy. i'm glad to be back with you today. we continue to see trends head in the right direction, but cases, hospital admissions and deaths remain at very high levels. covid-19 in the united states has been declining for five weeks with the seven-day average dropping 74% since the peak seven-day average on january 11th. the current seven-day average, approximately 66,000 cases per day, is similar to that seen during last summer's paefeak an

the seven-day average for hospital admissions 6,700 a day represent the peak average on january 9th, the lost number of admissions since last fall. the number of reported deaths also continues to decline with the seven-day average slightly more than 1,900 deaths, dropping 39% compared to the prior seven-day average. this is the lowest since the beginning of deeb. however, this seven-day average is counterbalanced by the stark reality this week that we will surpass one-half million covid-19 deaths in the united states, a truly traj reminder of the enormity of this pandemic and the loss it has aflicked on our personal lives and our communities. while the pandemic is heading in the right direction, there is still much work to do.

unarea that is particularly important is getting students back to in-person instructing -- instruct while protecting teachers, students and staff. a little more than a week ago we released our operational strategy for opening k-12 schools that. strategy provides the long-needed science-based road map to help schools open safely and remain open for in-person instruction. since the release of that strategy, we have been working closely with the department of education, public health partners an education partners including teachers and other school staff to increase awareness of the guidance and to support its use in on going discussions and planning efforts for school reopening. the goal is to achieve the reopening of schools safely. in addition, we continue to covid-19 spread in schools to identify the factors that

contribute to the spread. today cdc published a concerning report in the moshity and mortality weekly report that detailed an investigation of covid-19 spread in eight public elementary schools in a single school district in georgia during a period of high community spread. in the report researchers identified nine clusters of covid-19 cases involving 13 educators and 32 students at at least six elementary schools. in two of these clusters, covid-19 was spread first from educator to educator and then from educator to student. these two clusters accounted for half of all the school-associated cases. across the nine clusters, educators played an important role in the spread of covid-19 in the schools. covid-19 spread often occurred during in-person meetings and lunches and then subsequent spread in class roots covid-19 was also spread from student to educator and from student to

student, but this occurred less frequently. the two main reasons for the spread of covid-19 in these schools were inadequate physical distancing and mask adherence. in the schools physical distancing of at least six feet was not possible because of the high number of students in class as well as because of classroom layouts. in addition, covid-19 may have spread among educators in students during small group discussions where educators were in close proximity to students. although the schools districts map dated in-classroom mask wearing unless eating the study found there were instances where lax or inadequate mask wearing by students occurred. in these situations lack of physical distancing likely increased the spread. in addition, students ate lunch in their classrooms which may have also contributed to spread. these findings underscore the

importance of strict mask adherence to the five key layered mitigation strategies outlined in the cdc's k-12 operational strategy. in particular universal mask-wearing, physical distancing of at least six feet and using cohorting or podding of students are important to minimize spread throughout the school environment. this is especially true for schools that have high rates of covid-19 in their community. as we have noted, tis tansing requirements, which we recognize are very challenging, can be relaxed as -- as community rates come down. it's also worth noting that approximately 60% of close contacts of the cases agreed to be tested for covid-19, and for those who were tested, testing took five to seven days, a delay that makes tin credibly difficult to rapidly contain spread. these findings highlight an additional key mitigation strategy recommended in the cdc

guidance, the need for diagnostic testing and rapid and efficient contact tracing in combination with isolation and quarantine with n collaboration with the health department. this also highlights the importance of scaling up the vaccination efforts across the country including the continued need to prioritize teachers and other school staff for vaccination as part of the frontline essential workers consistent with the recommendation of the advisory committee on immunization practices. cdc's operational strategies specifically includes vaccination for teachers and school staff as an additional layer of prothat excan be added to the five key layered mitigation strategies. finally, i want to emphasize that while cdc's operational strategy does provide for in-person instruction during all levels of community spread, the safest and quickest way to open schools and keep them open is to have as little covid-19 in the community as possible. enabling schools to open and remain open is, therefore, a

shared responsibility. encouragingly consistent with the recent declines in covid-19 cases in the united states, the percentage of counties with the highest level of covid-19 transmission continue to drop, declining from approximately 90% when we released our schoolifiedance about ten days ago to 60% as of yesterday. now approximately 18% of counties have covid-19 levels at the low or moderate levels and that's consistent with full in-person learn for all k-12 schools in cdc guidance and 22% are at the substantial level consistent with hybrid learning or reduced in-person attendance for all k-12 schools. for the 60% of counties that remain in the red zone, the counties with high transmission, we encourage at least the k-5 students to return to school in hybrid or reduced in-person attendance and for middle and high school schools virtually

only unless they can strictly implement mitigation measures and have few cases. schools that are already open should continue to provide in-person instruction as long as cases are low, and they strictly use mitigation measures to keep them low. i hope these findings serve as a catalyst for each of us to do our part to drive down the number of cased and reduce the spread of covid-19. i know this is not easy and so many of us are frustrated with the destruction the pandemic has had on our lives and our children's education, but working together as a nation we can turn the tide. finally i want to share some news about our virtual national vaccine forum that kicked off this, mo. i'm excited to share we have over is 1,000 participants from 6,000 organizations across all 50 states, nearly all territories and is 28 tribes and tribal organizations. over the next three days these participants will share information and best practices

on how to build trust and confidence in covid-19 vaccines, use data to provide vaccine optimization and provide practical real-world experience on how to increase vaccination capacities in our communities. i encourage each of you to watch the livestream plenary sessions throughout the day and get engaged in your community vaccination efforts. before i turn dr. fauci, i want to reiterate to everyone to do your part to protect yourselves and each other by wearing a well-flitting mask, staying six feet apart from the people you do not live, avoiding travel in crowds, washing your hands often and getting vaccinated when the vaccine is available to you, and now i'll turn it over to dr. fauci. i look forward to your questions. dr. fauci? >> thank you very much, dr. walensky. i'm going to talk for a few minutes and updating you on where we are on selected therapy petics for covid-19, so if we can move ahead to my first slide. in general when one thinks of

therapeutics, you think of them as their petics for early or moderate disease versus therapeutics for moderate to advanced disease. clearly the strategy early on is to block the replication of virus and prevent it from going to the upper airways and the lungs to other organ systems. however, we have found through experience over the past many months that when one gets advanced disease, the hyper or aberrant inflammatory or immunological response gives as much to the morbidity and mortality as the actual virus replication itself and in that regard a variety of drugs have been tested. one, such as remdesivir has gained fda aproved. its effect is clear but modest. with regard to getting early

intervention monoclonal antibodies, both from lile and regeneron have received emergency use authorization. here again the earlier one uses these the better. these are as efficient and more efficient in those individuals who don't necessarily have a good antibody response. the same can be said of convalescent plasma which has also earned an emergency use authorization. again, because of the variability in the tighter of anti-bodder and various plasma alliquots. the issue here is getting this as early as possible. there's been a number of trials of a variety of antivirals or other agents that are off the shelf that have not been targeted. i'll get to targeted

intervention in just a moment and hyperimmune globulin is also in clinical trial, and we await results of all of these. with regard to therapeutics for advanced disease, as i mentioned that is generally aimed at blocking an aberrant inflammatory or immunologic response as well as other pathogenic mechanisms which are not necessarily that well understood. we have dexamethosone, a drug approved for many, many years, as the standard of care for advanced disease, particularly people in the hospital, on respirators and/or requiring high-flow oxygen. ba ri citinib and remdesivir have earned emergency use authorization and a number of immunomodulators including those that block a variety of

particular receptors are currently in clinical trials. the bottom line of what we need to do looking forward and the clear need for this is the potent antivirals directly acting on sars-cov-2, very similar to what was done with the highly successful drug development program for hiv as well as for hepatitis "c," and what i refer to is the future development of therapeutics that will be based on the identification of vulnerable targets in the sars-cov-2 replication cycle and the design of drugs to inhibit these vulnerable targets. as i mentioned, we are beginning this, and this is going to be the direction of the future. i want to point out to the group that the nih in april put

together a treatment guidelines panel that is a living document of clinicians and people involved in the care of sars-cov-2-infected individuals who analyze the literature as well as the now very common pre-print literature and updated meaningfully in very frequent intervals. it is a living document. as i mentioned there are 47 voting members of this, and since this was put online in april of 2020sly accessible by covid-19 treatment guidelines.nih.gov there have been over 11 million hits to this. the reason we feel this is important and i want to again

bring it to everyone's attention is that it is an easy way to get experienced clinicians to analyze data that's already in the literature as well as data that is in pre-print form and involved in just clinical experience. it's been very advantageous to clinicians, not only in the united states but worldwide, and if i could have the next slide. finally, i just want to bring to your attention something that the fda has done today in having a press briefing i believe at 1:30. i want to bring it to your attention because although they delineated the aspects of it, i want to make sure that everyone is aware of the very important work that the fda is doing, and that is they are guiding the medical product developers by updating their guidelines on how

they address the virus variants, and the products involved that are impacted by this updated guidance are vaccines, covid-19 tests and their petics. why is this important? it is very clear that we are faced right now and will be in the future with variants that are already present and that with all of the immunologic and other pressures going on and the high degree of replication throughout the twhoorworld that will be the selecting of a variety of variants. we ourselves in this country are already facing variants that are having impact such as the uk variant. we have the south african variant in our nation, and we're even having the evolution of variants within our own country. with regard to vaccines, the fda outlines the scientific

recommendations for the modification to authorized vaccines. in other words, we have vaccines that are out there that are highly efficacious. the manufacturers of these are going to want to know how they can address and modify their vaccines to address the ongoing evolution of variants and we expect the manufacturing recommendations to remain the same, and the effectiveness will be determined by immunogenicity studies, largely having to prove efficacy in studies. the same hold true for covid tests. the updated guidelines describes the fda's activities to better understand the public health impact on the variants and the impact on the test performances and provide recommendations to the developers of these tests regarding the future genetic

mutations and what they need to do when designing or modifying their existing tests. finally the same holds true for therapeutics, both drugs and biologics. the fda will provide regulations on the efficient approaches, how to generate data that potentially could support an eua for monoclonal antibody products that actually might be effective against emerging variants which obviously will be an issue because we already know, particularly that the south african variant is in fact obviating the effect of several of the monoclonal antibodies that people have developed. and former guidances on therapeutics will also be updated to address the evolving landscape of the covid-19 drug development again in the context

of emerging sars/cov-2 variants. in summary the fda will give guidance on how these companies can n n n n dresa floob will beh us already and lab problem in the future. i'll stop there, and back to you, andy. >> thank you, dr. fauche, dr. walensky. let's take a few a few questions. >> okay. so the headline that i heard from andy slavitt, and we'll digest all of this with dr. leona wen, the headline is in the wake of the nasty winter storm that must of the country experienced, real et the part of the laugh week, the mess, of course in, texas andy slavitt said that all backlogged vaccine doses will be delivered by mid-week this week which is wonderful, right, that's huge, but then he also acknowledged that's half the battle. great, you've got the vaccines. you've got to get shots in arms and the white house will be hosting these listening sessions

specifically on vaccine confidence, specifically within communities of color right, who have been disproportionately affected by this awful virus. doctor i want to start with schools. we heard dr. walensky talk about that, right, so the big question is schools. the white house is continuing to say that teachers should be prioritized for vaccines, but, you know, in the same pretty they say that also shouldn't be a pre-requisite for opening schools back up. how can both things be true? >> well, i can understand from their point of view i think in that they are saying it's really important for teachers to be vaccinated, but we don't want to close down all the schools that are already open in order for teachers to be vaccinated, schools that should be open should remain open and in the meantime we can prioritize teachers. if that's what they are saying that's fine but i think they should should go one step more because it actually is in their

control to try to prioritize teachers for vaccinations. they keep on saying, well, it's up to state governments. actually the federal government can earmark and set aside vaccinations or vaccines and say to state governments we want -- we want and we expect for these vaccines to go to teachers because vaccinating teachers is so essential. if we really care about our children we should care about teachers and school staff. we'll send in the national guard and the public health service and we'll figure out how to get these vaccines directly into teachers' arms. that's what i'm missing here. i'm hearing they say it's a priority but don't just say the words, make it happen and there's still more than 20 states right now where teachers are not even eligible to get the vaccine >> you read my mind. you read my mind >> you hear president biden. you feel his empathy through the screen, right? he's acknowledging just all of this and he's trying to push forward and getting everyone vaccinated and he's saying,

listen, we'd love to get teachers healthy, vaccinated and back in schools, but he does keep essentially putting it off to the states. he's like i can't make everyone. it's up to the state level, and if the states want to prioritize teachers getting those vaccines then that's up to the states. why do you think they have yet to take that extra step that you just outlined? >> that's a good question. i would like for them to answer that because there are actually things the federal government can do, including the rather draconian but possible step of saying to states we're not going to give you any further vaccine allocations unless you put teach nears that priority group or even we will do the work ourselves. we will distribute the vaccines directly to school districts as they are already doing to certain pharmacies and health centers. they can say we're going to allocate these vaccines and set them aside specifically for school district and we'll work with school health nurses to vaccinate the teachers and that's well within the biden

administration'sle and that's something that they could do today. >> got it. the other question i was starting to ask you about for the people, the grandparents out there who are fortunate enough to have had the two shots, how long do grandparents and just using this as an example need to wait before they see their grandkids? >> i would wait two weeks in order for the vaccine to reach optimal immunity so two weeks after that second shot, and then the grandparents are well protected themselves. i mean, again, the vaccine we know it protects you from having symptomatic disease and especially having severe disease that may land you in the hospital or cass worse illness, but you could still be potentially a carrier to infect the rest family, and so i would say in those two weeks after you get that second shot reduce your own risk as much as you can. if you're traveling, make sure you wear a mask and keep good physical distancing and then i would say hug those grandkids and spend time with them because it's been such a long time and

we really need to regain some sense of normality and also give hope to everybody else about why these vaccines are so important. >> we do. doctor, thank you as well. a reminder to all of you please join jake tapper this evening as we here at cnn are pausing to honor the lives of the half million americans lost to covid-19. we remember 500,000, a national memorial service tonight at 11:00 eastern here on cnn. also breaking today, a major defeat for former president donald trump. the supreme court ordering trump's accountant to turn over his tax returns to prosecutors in new york. so what happens now? you're watching cnn. i'm brooke baldwin. t. let's listen to this. louder. take these guys? i mean, there's room. maybe next time, fellas. now we're talking. alright. let's. go.

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donald trump's tax returns. they have been kind of a holy grail for his crickets, and he's fought tooth-and-nail to keep those document secret but today the u.s. supreme court allowed for their release to a new york prosecutor and could possibly change the grand jury investigation into these alleged hush money payments and other issues. trump's former lawyer and fixer michael cohen saying today, quote, trump will for the first time have to take responsibility for his own dirty deeds, end quote. cnn justice correspondent jessica schneider joins me. has president trump responds to this. >> the president's team has and they are releasing this long and angry statement saying the supreme court decision is just a continuation of the witch hunt

and then they are accusing these prosecutors of being politically motivated so this is what they are saying in part. the supreme court never should have let this fishing expedition happen but they did. this is something which has never happened to a president before. it is all democrat inspired in a totally democrat location new york city and state completely controlled by a heavily reported enemy of mine, governor andrew cuomo. just to be clear. this investigation is being brought by the district attorney which really doesn't have any relation to the governor here, brooke, but this statement went on to call head-hunting prosecutors and ags who try to take down political opponents. you know, to be clear, this is a major defeat for donald trump after he fought the relieves his tax returns for years. it was this morning that the supreme court cleared the way for new york city's top prosecutor to get the former president's tax returns dating all the way back to 2011. so, brooke, this is part of the investigation into the hush money payments michael cohen made to two women who alleged

affairs with donald trump and also court files have since suggested that the manhattan d.a. has actually brought in this investigation to include potential bank and insurance fraud. now we heard a while ago and from today trump's accounting firm that they have said in the past they will comply and will hand over these years of tax returns, but it's important to note that it doesn't mean the tax returns will become public. those returns will actually go to the manhattan d.a. they will be used into the grand jury investigation but crucially all proceedings here are kept secret, but the details could eventually be exposed, brooke, if there's charges fanned there's a trial and we're getting word this afternoon from my colleague kara skinnel, sources are telling her that the manhattan's d.a.'s office expects to have these in hands in the next few days. >> wow. >> expecting them electronicically, and what's crucial is these are not just the tax returns, documents, other communications and work product here and that could shed light crucially if there was any criminal intent here which is

what the d.a. no doubt will be look at, brooke. >> so in a matter of days, cy vance will have these in his hot hands. jessica schneider, thank you. let's talk more about this defeat. with me is legal analyst elie honig who used to be with the southern district of new york and a former reporter at the "new york times" joins me and ron brownstein is our senior political analyst and writer at "the atlantic." in a couple of day cy vance has these documents. what can he do with these tax returns, and can he use them for cases, you know, outside of the current scope? >> sure, brooke. these tax returns are going to be key evidence in the manhattan d.a.'s investigation. the crux of the case is whether the trump deflated or inflated the valve their assets. when they applied for bank loans did they drump the value of real estate holdings and revenue and

then when they applied for their tax refunds or taxes did they intentionally deflate the valve their assets. the way would you find that is see those tax returns. i assure you the prosecutor's office knows where the tax returns fit into their case. they could be a crucial peeves evidence. we'll see what's on the tax returns. we won't but ky vance will see and that will guide his investigation. >> quick follow-up. can trump and his legal team appeal this whole thing? >> it's all but over. turns out six times is the charm. believe it or not, donald trump has lost this case six times in the federal courts as jessica just said. it's going to be a matter of hours or days before those returns are in the d.a.'s hands, and he'll do with them what a prosecutor will do. >> obviously we remember back to when donald trump promised to release his tax returns when he was running for president saying, and i'm air quoting, the audit. i was the look on twitter and saw former congresswoman barbara comstock who floated this idea that said perhaps one way to

stop trump from running again would be to pass a law requiring full disclosure of personal and business tax records. do you think enough members could get behind, that a, and, b, if he is serious about running again could this tax return issue actually become a bigger deal next time? >> what you hear quietly from reap dance is in the absence of them having the kind of political courage to speak out against donald trump, they are hoping basically that prosecutors do that for them, that this kind of becomes a big enough issue that people who are hoping to take over the republican party from donald trump in the back of their head and off record and background who are saying, well, look at these legal issues and that's what stops them. i think what former congresswoman comstock is just floating that outloud, saying that the congress could potentially pass a law and remember some democrats on the trail talking about this to -- to make sure that any type of nominee would have to open their tax returns which would

potentially bar donald trump. we've seen democrats not really willing to make that kind of proactive step. a lot of democrats are kind of uneasy of looking like they are proactively trying to bar trump from running from office, and we know republicans haven't stood up on that front. i think it's unlikely that we see that type of proactive effort from congress. i think what is more likely is the legal questions engulf him to the point where he cannot run or he's kind of free to do what we already know he can't which is to overtake the republican primary where he still enjoys significant popularity. >> speaking of look into the future, ron brownstein. this is for you. despite the fact that donald trump was acquitted for inciting insurrection axios says trump plans to talk at cpac and tell republicans that he's the presumptive 2024 nominee. first of all what, and second of all, what do you do if you're mitch mcconnell? >> yeah, i mean, look, this

is -- first of all, the situation is really almost without historic precedent. think of the last one-term president who was defeat who had retained significant influence had his party, not george h.w. bush or jimmy carter or benjamin harrison. >> who? >> you have to go back to the civil war and martin van buren and he does receive three-quarters of republicans who still want trump to play a prominent role going forward. the problem that the party has one-fifth to one-quarter of republican voters who say they don't want to see a party stamped by and defined by trump is plenty to cause them enormous electoral problems if in fact the party defers to trump and they pull away. i will say that in practice the divide is kind of less than it appears in kind of the rhetoric because, for example, you're seeing in all of these states, from arizona to georgia to wisconsin and pennsylvania, florida, montana, efforts by

state-level republicans using trump's discredited claims of fraud to impose this incredible wave of voter suppression so the party is unifying in a trumpian direction even as it argues over his personal >> let me help you further your point. i say this new poll found that despite trump's second impeachment, 46% of republicans say they will abandon the republican party and join trump if he starts a new political party. keep that simmering in all of our heads. here is what i want to know back to this whole tax issue. we know the taxes will be subject to grand jury secrecy rules, that will respect their actual -- restrict their public release. when could the public ever actually be able to see trump's taxes? >> two ways. first of all if the manhattan d.a. brings a charm ge and it gs

to trial. that becomes part of the public record. the second -- there's a second lawsuit going on where the congressional committees are trying to get their hands on donald trump's tax returns. if that happens, how quickly does congress leak? you could count that in a matter of hours. keep an eye on that lawsuit as well. that's the quicker path for the tax returns to hit the public. >> last question. trump hasn't been out of office for long. he faces all these lawsuits, shows no signs of letting up. he obviously has a firm grip on the party to ron's point, republicans keep going to mar-a-lago to profverbially kis the ring. when and if republicans try to hit him where it hurts, his wallet and use his tax returns against him, will it work against teflon don? >> i mean, i think that it's a general election question, a

larger populous question for donald trump. we have seen no willingness to break from him. you have after the november election, you have potential rivals of his in 2024 already saying they would support him if he were to run again. i don't know how you undo that. i don't know how they can say, hey, actually, maybe we should break from this guy. i think you have nikki haley as a good example in the last couple weeks who had the moment after january 6th where she said -- condemning trump and is back at mar-a-lago. >> exactly. >> i don't i had we should expect that to break any time soon. >> exactly. thank you so much to every single one of you. appreciate you. president biden's co-1vid relief bill cleared a huge hurdle. we have the details next. their only friend? the open road. i have friends. [ chuckles ]

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right now on capitol hill, the most crucial week for president biden's massive covid relief bill is underway. the plan will cost nearly $2 trillion. it comes as the nation nears a half million deaths and nearly a year of pandemic hardships. the goal is to have the bill signed by march 14th. there are hurdles between now and then. manu raju is our chief congressional correspcorrespond.

talk to me about the hurdles. >> a big step that happened this afternoon was the house budget committee approved along party lines the $1.9 trillion packet, by a 19-16 vote. it was supposed to be a straight party line vote. but democrat accidentally voted against it. i'm told, he is in favor of it. this goes on to the next step. the next step is the house rules committee will repair it for the full house. the full house will vote at the end of the week. the question will be, will nancy pilelosi keep her kcaucus, can keep it together on the house floor? the exteexpectation is yes. the democrats are working hard to lock down support, ensure they have no defections or limited defections. republicans are pushing their members to vote against the measure. the house republican leadership has sent a missive asking them to vote against it. they believe it's too costly. they believe it's not needed.

the proposal sweeping in nature. $1,400 in stimulus checks for individuals under a certain income threshold. vac vaccine distribution, a key priority, in addition to raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. all key issues that have some democrats aren't in support of all the measures, but all in this package. there's an effort to get this done by the end of the week in the house and the question is the senate. >> quickly, 30 seconds, when it makes its way to the senate, can democrats stay united? >> that's the big question. two democratic senators both are concerned about the federal minimum wage. the question is whether senate rules will allow that hike to be included in the package. they are using a budget process to pass it through without republican support. that's the question that we have to decide. will democrats stay reuunited?

>> you are so good. thank you so much for just keeping us -- all the twists and turns. thank you so much. i'm brooke baldwin. see you back here tomorrow. to washington we go. "the lead" with jake tapper starts right now. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. we begin today with breaking news in the politics lead. judge merrick garland is getting his hearing. president biden's nominee for attorney general denied such a hearing when president obama nominated for him for the supreme court. is testifying on the first of two days of confirmation hearings before the senate judiciary committee. judge garland has assured senators that he will lead an independent justice department as the people's lawyer, not the president's. garland asserted his first priority is to prosecute those involved in the january 6th insurrection at the u.s. capitol. the nominee is gettingra